your are wrong. LCM already produce Rare Earth Metals:

http://www.gwmg.ca/html/less-common-metals-section/products/metals/metals_rare_earth_metals/index.cfm

Predictions are easy to make. I like to examine results. If MCP can prove production costs of $2.75/kg then I think it will be the world’s low-cost producer.

Can anyone tell me exactly what is being produced at $2.75/kg? Is it ore concentrate? If whatever is being costed out at $2.75/kg is beyond ore concentrate in the supply chain then MCP is very impressive indeed.

Even if its just 60%(?) ore concentrate though I will be impressed only after a 1000 tons of this ore concentrate have been consistently run and the actual costs computed on those first 1,000,000 kgs. This will be the defining moment, not the prediction but the practice.

Let’s all hope it works out,

Jack

You mentioned the problems Lynas faces with the Thorium issue… Do you feel that Moly has solved this issue and does not face any headwinds in this area?

This is in a Moly SEC filing…

“REOs contain naturally occurring radioactive substances, such as thorium and uranium. The mining and processing of REOs involves the handling and disposal of such substances, and accordingly we are subject to extensive safety, health and environmental laws, regulations and permits regarding radioactive substances. Significant costs, obligations or liabilities may be incurred with respect to such requirements, and any future changes in such requirements (or the interpretation or enforcement thereof) may have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations. One such permit pursuant to which we currently operate is a Radioactive Materials License issued and administered by the California Department of Health Services Radiologic Health Branch. The license applies to the use of sealed radioactive sources used for gauging volumes of materials, as well as certain other activities. A failure to maintain or renew this license could materially adversely affect our business or results of operations.”

Could you comment on this? Could this ultimately affect their production costs’ of $2.77/kg?

Thanks for your excellent articles! I particularly appreciated your analysis of the Estonia acquisition…

Read this article. It highlights how complicated this process is, very clearly.

Alexander

My average buy in for my 100k of GWMGF is about $0.15.
Regardless of all the noise it is patently obvious that GWMGF will be the first to market with a significant amount of HREE material that both MCP and Lynas can only drool over.

I also hold sadly not enough of UURAF and AVL but continue to buy on dips. There is growing demand for LREE right now so I also hold Lynas as I believe that they will greatly outproduce a vastly overpriced MCP by year end.

Oh wait…. I stand corrected…. Jack is long GWMGF. What does that tell you??

Would you have a view on Unicore (UCU.V) and Tasman metals(TSM.V)? I am invested in them based on analyst recommendations and would appreciate your thoughts on whether they may survive the cull.

Kind regards

Neera

I am a bit confused on one point in this article. You write:
“With the exception of the fluid cracking catalyst manufacturing industry, which uses chemical compounds of the rare earths produced early in the rare-earth refining process, the overwhelming majority of end users of the rare earths use and require high-purity metals and alloys of the rare earths for their products.”

However, from Gupta and Krishnamurthy’s book Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths (2005):
“To sum up, it may be pointed out that on a volume basis, approximately 95% of the usage of the rare earths is in the mixed form; the individual elemental forms of the rare earths account for the remaining 5% of the total volume, but this component represents over 50% of the monetary value.” pg470.

Could you please clarify your meaning? Or if you have a source for this information could you please direct me to it?

Thanks!